Libraries

Cuban Missile Crisis

A Guide to Finding Government Information

Web version of this guide includes links to web resources.

Search Tips:

Mix and match these terms in searching the library catalog, WestCat, or use them to search journal articles and law reviews via the library's Databases page. You can also use them to search government information sites listed on our Starting Points page - click the tab and pay particular attention to the Top Six.

Cuban missile crisis

JFK

Fidel Castro

USSR or Soviet Union

foreign policy

nuclear war

nuclear weapons

John F. Kennedy

Nikita Khrushchev

foreign relations

Cuba

blockade

National Security Council

reconnaissance

Related Topics:

Cold War

Communism

An important source for many research topics is Congress. Congressional committees and subcommittees hold hearings on a wide variety of controversial and timely subjects. Simply add the word "hearing?" to a search string in WestCat.

Search Engines

Google and StartPage Use these search engines to search for government information by typing "site:gov" in the search box preceding your search terms:

site:gov "Cuban missile crisis"

site:mil Castro nuclear weapons

Federal Government Information

"It was just the most devastating event in world history . . . that somehow didn't happen." This article uncovers many of the things that could have been mistaken during the crisis for acts of war and, thence, ushered in a nuclear holocaust.Prologue, Fall 2012, AE 1.111:44/3http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2012/fall/cuban-missiles.html

This is a short overview of the repeated lies by the Soviets concerning cargo being shipped to Cuba in the Spring and Summer of 1962.https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article06.html

Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States - John F. Kennedy, 1962

Messages and statements from the president and/or his office in chronological order. 1963GS 4.113:962

This short book details the roll played by the U.S. Navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 1993www.history.navy.mil/pubs/Cordon_Of_Steel.pdfhttp://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/cordonsteel.htmD 221.16:1

This site offers scanned documents, some handwritten, concerning NSA's role in intelligence gathering activities on Soviet shipments to Cuba.http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/declass/cuban_missile_crisis/index.shtml

This report is a summary of a book written by the same author after extensive research and analysis, which included travel to Russia and Cuba to interview soldiers, bureaucrats, and politicians involved in the conflict and also examines U.S. foreign policy decisions based on erroneous conclusions concerning its resolution. 2008http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS95544

This paper examines the micromanagement of military operations by politicians and its consequences, both good and bad, and offers solutions for better fulfillment of the political objectives behind military actions. The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War are central to the discussion. 1998http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS12200

This webpage discusses the significance of aerial reconnaissance, and particularly the U-2 spy plane, in assessing the content of cargo shipments reaching Cuba from the Soviet Union. http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123175466

This declassified document from the CIA describes the reconnaissance flight and the handling of the aerial photographic evidence therefrom.https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/10cuban.html

This forum marking the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis is introduced by Caroline Kennedy and includes members from the Kennedy Administration and Sergei Khrushchev, the son of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/Biographies-and-Profiles/~/media/assets/Education and Public Programs/Forum Transcripts/On the Brink The Cuban Missile Crisis.pdf

This 354-page book is a compilation of declassified CIA documents and communications from the Cuban Missile Crisis. 1992https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/Cuban%20Missile%20Crisis1962.pdfPREX 3.17:C 89